opener against Northamptonshire at Chelmsford and 119 in Essex's first Friends Provident Trophy South East Division match against Kent at Canterbury. However, in Essex's next match, a county championship match against Derbyshire at Derby, Pettini was forced to miss the second and third days' play after suffering an astigmatism in his eye. He travelled to Cambridge to see a specialist for treatment. The eye problem would flare up again just a day before the county's Friends Provident Trophy final against Kent at Lord's. Pettini's form tailed off somewhat, but he did hit a match-winning 144 against the Surrey Brown Caps in a Friends Provident Trophy match at the Oval on 11 May 2008. That game saw Essex score 391–5 from their 50 overs. On 16 August 2008, Pettini captained Essex to victory in the Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord's. He scored 10 opening the batting as the Eagles beat Kent Spitfires by five wickets to lift their first one-day knockout trophy since 1997. Pettini's father, Max, is an astronomer. Mark himself graduated with an astronomy degree from Cardiff University and has a keen interest in the subject. He is also a keen fisherman and loves darts, attending a number of PDC events with best friend Alastair Cook. During the 2008 season, Pettini stated on his Sky Sports profile that his sporting hero is Sid Waddell. Pettini also wrote a weekly column called "Pett Sounds" in the Southend Echo and Colchester Gazette newspapers. After some poor form with the bat, Pettini decided to resign his county captaincy for all forms of the game in June 2010. James Foster took over as Essex captain. Pettini then took a few weeks off to work on his batting. At the end of the 2015 season, Pettini was announced as moving from Essex to Leicestershire. References External links 1983 births English cricketers Living people Essex cricketers Essex cricket captains English people of Italian descent Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Sportspeople from Brighton